Eric Ludy Sermon Podcast: Church at Ellerslie

The great preacher, Leonard Ravenhill, once stated that the American church has exchanged a true and lasting Godly peace and joy for the counterfeit form of peace and a counterfeit form of joy found in Hollywood entertainment and professional sports. Psalm 16 claims that "In God's presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore." The question is, "Do we actually believe...

The Bible reveals our God to be so far above us in regality, purity, power, mind, strength, love, and wisdom. He is perfect—without an Achille's heel, without a gap of vulnerability, without a trace of weakness. Our God—rock- like and immovable—was moved by love to come to this earth and rescue us. And to pull off this extraordinary rescue, our God deigned it right take on the ut...

This last week was an extraordinary one on the Ellerslie campus. God's presence was sweet and intimately near, but also deeply soul-searching and convicting. It was an entire week on our faces, beholding the holiness and yet also the amazing grace of our Beloved. Amidst this campus- wide revival, the enemy attempted with great energy and ammunition to counter the forward steps of the saints. This...

Adoption is one of the centerpieces of the Gospel. And it is important to note that the idea of adoption strikes the Christian at two levels. The first being in our own personal adoption as believers to the Heavenly Father. And the second being in adopting the burden and love of God for the vulnerable around us, willingly becoming a conduit of the love and mercies of our Heavenly Father by invitin...

As strange as it may seem, there is a pattern for "dying well" and "dying triumphant" found in the pages of Scripture. And this pattern is evidenced in the deaths of the greatest and most godly men and women throughout the ages. For instance, Stephen was stoned, James (the brother of John) was beheaded, Peter was crucified upside down, Paul was beheaded, Philip was crucified, Matthew was slain wit...

WARNING: This message contains forthright and unabashed answers to very uncomfortable questions and in no way is politically correct. This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and thusly our country is lacquered in pink and laced with pink ribbons. There is every corporate and political advantage to "pink-wash" your product or campaign. How should a Christian deal with this issue? Should we lev...

There is a strange paranoia in the modern church regarding the idea of spiritual "work." To lift a finger in spiritual labor has been classified as "legalism" by many, and of course, none of us wish to be legalists. The key to removing the paranoia is to clearly define "God's work" as contrasted with “the believer's work." For the problem of legalism arises when believers attempt to do God's...

To join God's armed forces, God asks of his soldiers that everything precious to them be left behind—father, mother, wife, and even children. Everything must be counted loss. And the recruit must realize that sorrow and sufferings are guaranteed companions in the ensuing enlistment period. With such an extreme and high cost, why is it that countless multitudes of fighting men and women have...

When we think of Jesus as a rock, most of us imagine a big lump of granite. But not all rock is created equal. And our God is no ordinary rock; He is the Rock of rocks. In Scripture, there is an amazing term utilized: “adamant.” This fascinating word is a wonderful invitation into a majestically expanded understanding of the strength and power of our almighty God.

Over and over again throughout Christian history, mighty men and women of God have singled out one very specific spiritual action as the "Christian secret" to their personal triumph and effectiveness in the kingdom of Heaven. Hudson Taylor, Leonard Ravenhill, A.W. Tozer, D.L. Moody, Oswald Chambers, John Bunyan, C.T. Studd, Amy Carmichael, Ian Thomas, and countless more all point to the very same...

Plain and simple: God builds heroes. He doesn't build self-centered egotists nor self-obsessed circus clowns—He builds men and women who have wholly forgotten themselves and are ready to spend and be spent for the glory of almighty God. And He calls such a masterpiece a "Christian."

The historic concept of "praying through" has gone missing in our modern- day version of Christianity. But "praying through" was the essence of the George Muller, Rees Howells, John Hyde, Hudson Taylor, William Booth, Leonard Ravenhill, C.T. Studd model for effectual fervent praying. How do we get this powerful, wrestling, persistent prayer back to the center of Christian life in our day?

We have a dorm wing on our Ellerslie Campus that we know as "The Etceteras Wing." It's a strange name, yes, but it has deep significance among us. In the early 1900's, the great missionary, C.T. Studd, coined the phrase "The Etceteras" when referring to the men and women called to give up their lives as death-defying missionaries. And to be quite frank, Studd's description of what makes up an "Etc...

The Old Ground is the place where lame walk and blind see. It's the place where the poor and the least are seen as royalty. It's the place where a handful of fish and bread feed a multitude of hungry. It's the place where helpless little lambs gain the faces of lions and march victoriously on the gates of hell. It's the place of God's presence in a flame of fire. It's holy ground. The Old Ground i...

The Irish Elk once roamed the forests of Eurasia, boasting a head over ten feet in height and a rack of antlers that sprawled twelve feet in width. Even the thought of such a creature elicits awe and admiration. But the Irish Elk is no more. It is extinct. And its grandeur is merely a thing of legend and its rack of glory is now only an entry in the fossil record. And like the Irish Elk, a brawny,...

Just as there are gradients to the color blue, there are gradients to the grandeur and substance of a Godly man. On a scale of 1 to 10, Jesus ranks a ten—the deepest and richest royal shade of blue, so to speak. He was the perfect man, demonstrating the heavenly hues of majesty and holiness. Jesus has set forth a pattern of manhood, and it is a standard so far beyond the average pew-sitting...

The ancient war-cry of the Hebrew nation was, "Rak Khazak." And today, those fiery words still turn Israeli soldiers into steely fighting machines. It was first introduced by Moses in his Deuteronomic commission and then carried on by Joshua as he stepped into the Promised Land with the face of a lion. Translated into English, the words mean "be strong and of good courage!" Those ancient words hav...

If the power of the Gospel is to be fully realized in the life of a believer, that believer must first be emptied. The principle of the Gospel is always "first death, then life." Mary of Bethany took her most precious possession (the alabaster jar of spikenard) and poured it out upon Jesus's feet. Those near the scene grumbled that the cost of such a precious treasure was wasted in that fashion, b...

The Gospel is more than forgiveness; it is a blood-speckled avenue into the fullness of the person of God. This is a message about living where God lives and comprehending the amazing truth that God Almighty wishes to enter in and take control of our very lives. This is the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to the saints.

The Emergent Church has proposed the outrageous notion that God's Word is evolving and each subsequent generation is responsible for interpreting God's Truth for their time. But the Word of God itself is in complete opposition to such a notion of a "changing" God and a "relative"Truth. Our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever—in Him is no variation nor shadow of turning. Our God is...

The Apostle Paul mentions a certain sword, shield, helmet, breastplate, belt, and shoes in Ephesians, chapter six. He refers to them as the believer's "armor." Paul clearly commands us to dress ourselves in this "armor" in order that we may effectively fight this spiritual battle in which we find ourselves currently employed. However, even with the presence of a clear command, many Christians toda...

We experienced something very sacred in our midst this past week at Ellerslie. It was a powerful move of God upon our students and staff. It was a campus-wide revival that led to entire days of confession of sins, entire days of worship, and entire days of prayer. Here is the testimony as shared this past Sunday at the Church at Ellerslie (including student testimony). This service, as recorded he...

The book of Romans, chapter ten, makes a statement that is a bit unusual. "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace." At the pedestrian level of thought, "feet" are not typically considered beautiful. And the reason we don't understand this concept is because we don't understand the Biblical significance of feet. To the Hebrew mind, feet are more than just a body part; th...

We as humans can forgive those that wrong us, but we lack the ability, the power, and the love to forgive the way God forgives. Human forgiveness relinquishes resentment and anger, but it can't remove the magnetic pull of remembrance. Human forgiveness leaves us free from the rot of bitterness, but it does nothing to bring heavenly love into the soul towards the one who wronged us. God forgives un...

We as humans have problems. We have issues, and this world has a name for every single one of them—and not only a name for them, but also a man-crafted “solution” for each one. Yet every solution offered by man is nothing more than a counterfeit to the real solution that God has made available through the person of Jesus Christ. As Christians, we must learn to always turn to Jesu...